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Wednesday, February 8, 2023

You've pushed past the midway point of the week. Bob Iger says Disney will slash 7,000 jobs, Warner Bros. Discovery will keep Discovery+ after all, more than 200 journalists will walk out at NBCU, James O'Keefe's future at Project Veritas is in question, Google shares slide after AI demo, and more. But first, the A1.

THE A1

The Collusion Delusion

CNN Photo Illustration/Alex Wong/Getty Images

Republicans are living in a reality distortion field.

That is the only conclusion that can be drawn from Wednesday's hearing on Capitol Hill where GOP lawmakers continued to push a factually unsupported narrative about the federal government secretly colluding with Twitter to censor the New York Post's Hunter Biden laptop story in 2020.

Despite no real evidence to support this weighty and consequential claim, Republicans were unrelenting in peddling it to the American public. At Wednesday's hearing they showed no regard for misinforming those who turn to them for accurate information or the fact that they were smearing a private business and its former executives in the process.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, who seems to want to be taken seriously by the Washington elite while tossing asinine red meat to the Republican base, claimed Twitter happily followed supposed FBI instructions to censor the Hunter Biden story because they were "terrified of Joe Biden not winning the election."

The unsupported claim is nothing new for him. Comer has long pushed the notion that Elon Musk's release of the so-called "Twitter Files" showed "evidence that the Biden campaign colluded with Big Tech to suppress a story that we now know is 100 percent true." That, of course, is not what the selectively released company documents show.

But Comer's statements get to the heart of the matter: By pushing the narrative that there was "collusion" between Big Tech and the FBI to "censor" the Post's Hunter Biden story, Republicans are not so subtly feeding their election denying base reason to believe that the 2020 election was effectively rigged against Donald Trump.

Right-wing media outlets and personalities are happy to amplify these claims and spread them to millions of viewers who turn to them for their news. Fox News, for instance, hyped the GOP claims from the hearing on Wednesday, portraying the nonsense coming out of the hearing as if it were a serious affair uncovering considerable wrongdoing.

The facts — reality — simply do not matter. It didn't move one Republican when the Twitter executives they had subpoenaed before the committee refuted their claims. And it didn't matter much to the right-wing media apparatus that blindly repeated them to their audiences.

"I am aware of no unlawful collusion with, or direction from, any government agency or political campaign on how Twitter should have handled the Hunter Biden laptop situation," James Baker, Twitter's former deputy counsel, told the committee while under oath.

And Matt Taibbi, one of the journalists Musk handpicked last year to comb through Twitter's internal messages for evidence of free speech violations, said himself that "there is no evidence — that I've seen — of any government involvement in the laptop story."

Such statements from Baker, former Trust and Safety head Yoel Roth, and former general counsel Vijaya Gadde saturated Wednesday's hearing — but they fell on deaf ears. Republicans showed, once again, that they are married to pushing claims that Silicon Valley is intentionally and unjustly censoring conservative views, even when the facts do not contort with their narrative.

Ironically, the hearing appeared to reveal that Twitter had acquiesced to Trump and changed its policies after it concluded that he had violated its rules.

Anika Collier Navaroli, a former senior employee on Twitter's content moderation team, testified that the social media company ended its ban on abusive language against immigrants to "go back to where they came from" so that Trump would not face repercussions for his racist 2019 attack on four minority Democratic congresswomen. "So much for bias against right-wing on Twitter," Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez replied.

And the hearing hinted that the Trump White House attempted to censor the speech of at least one American: Chrissy Teigen. When Teigen called Trump a series of expletives in 2019, Navaroli testified that she was told the Trump White House contacted Twitter and demanded that it be removed.

Strangely enough, Republicans showed no interest in drilling down on this allegation of censorship. It's no wonder why.

THE SIDEBAR

On that note: Adam Rawnsley and Asawin Suebsaeng report that the Trump admin and GOP lawmakers "routinely asked Twitter to take down posts they objected to — the exact behavior that they're claiming makes President Biden, the Democrats, and Twitter complicit in an anti-free speech conspiracy to muzzle conservatives online." (Rolling Stone)
With the onslaught of misinformation being pushed by Republicans and right-wing media, news outlets must be clear-eyed and direct with their audiences about this story and what the GOP is actually aiming to do with it. Repeating GOP claims uncritically does not serve the audience.
Freshman Democratic Texas Rep. Greg Casar said it better than many media outlets: "It seems to me that we're having these hearings so that people can beat their chest about Hunter Biden, maybe do some fundraising, get some headlines, and ironically post those on Twitter."

——— BELOW THE FOLD ———

CNN Photo Illustration/Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

Dread at Disney: Wall Street responded well on Wednesday to Disney's earnings, with shares jumping nearly 10% in after-hours trading before falling back down to earth and settling around 5%. But employees at the company are surely less thrilled by what CEO Bob Iger announced. Iger, leading his first earnings report since returning to Disney, said that the company will slash 7,000 jobs from its workforce, representing about 3% of worldwide staffers. Iger, who explained the entertainment behemoth is looking for $5.5 billion in cost savings, described the cuts as "necessary to address the challenges" facing the company. CNN's Chris Isidore has more here.

Other highlights from the Disney earnings:

► Disney beat analyst expectations, with revenue rising 8% to $23.5 billion versus the $23.4 expected and earnings coming in at 99 cents a share versus the 78 cents forecasted.

► Iger said that Disney will combine all the company's content businesses, including streaming, into an arm of the company that will be called Disney Entertainment. He said the goal is to return "creativity to the center of the company." It will be led by Dana Walden and Alan Bergman.

► The company reiterated that it believes Disney+ will be profitable by 2024. The streamer, however, lost about 2.4 million subscriptions in the last three months of 2022.

► Iger said that Disney has "not engaged in any conversations" about and is not "considering a spinoff of ESPN." He added that "in my absence" it was considered, but said it was the wrong move for the company.

► Iger announced that there will be a new "Avatar" experience at Disneyland.

SOTU Viewership Slumps: The ratings for President Joe Biden's 2023 State of the Union address are in — and they show a significant decline from last year's address, which likely attracted more viewers due to the onset of the war in Ukraine. An estimated 27.3 million people watched Biden's second SOTU address on Tuesday night, Nielsen said, a decline of 29% from his 2022 speech when more than 38 million tuned in. This year, 73% of the audience was aged 55 and older, with only 5% of viewers aged 18-34. Here is the breakdown showing where viewers watched the speech across broadcast and cable:

► On broadcast, ABC News led the pack, averaging 4.4 million viewers and 1.1 million in the demo. NBC News averaged 3.8 million total viewers with 1 million in the demo. And CBS News averaged 3.6 million viewers with 708K in the demo.

► On cable news, CNN averaged 2.4 million viewers, with 651k in the demo. MSNBC averaged 3.6 million viewers, with 500K in the demo. The right-wing talk channel Fox News averaged 4.7 million viewers with 853k in the demo.

THE BUSINESS

CNN Photo Illustration/Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto/Getty Images

WBD's Walkback: Warner Bros. Discovery "plans to keep Discovery+ as a stand-alone streaming service," The WSJ's Jessica Toonkel and Joe Flint first reported Wednesday, citing sources. The move, as the duo wrote, represents "a strategy shift for a company that had planned to consolidate content in a single subscription app." Toonkel and Flint reported that WBD leaders "have since adjusted that view" and made the decision to keep Discovery+ as "part of an effort to avoid risking losing a significant chunk of the app's 20 million subscribers who might not want to pay the higher price to access that content." CNN has more here.

► A WBD spokesperson told me that the company's plans to combine HBO Max and Discovery+ content remains unchanged, but the spokesperson did confirm WBD has decided to keep the standalone offer for Discovery+.

The Grey Lady's Gains: Shares in The NYT ended the trading day up 12%, after the company beat its quarterly earnings and said it gained more than one million subscribers in 2022. The gains mean that the news organization has 9.6 million paying subscribers. "It was our second-best year for net digital subscriber additions, behind only 2020," CEO Meredith Kopit Levien said. The NYT's Katie Robertson has more here.

Fox's Finances: Shares in Fox Corp. also finished up 4% on Wednesday, after the company reported earnings that kept up with investor expectations. Advertising revenue at the company increased 4%, powered by the NFL and political advertising at its Fox Television Stations. The company also expanded its stock buyback program by $3 billion, with Lachlan Murdoch saying it "reflects the confidence" leadership has in the company. THR's Georg Szalai has more here.

► Murdoch said that Fox will look for M&A opportunities, given the merger with News Corp. has been scrapped: "I do think scale is important."

Walkout At 30 Rock: More than 200 journalists at NBC News, MSNBC, and Today Digital plan to walk out on Thursday, protesting NBCU's decision to lay off seven union members, the NewsGuild of New York said. The NBC Digital News Guild sent a letter to management informing them of their plans, saying they will walk off the job unless NBCU reverses its actions. An NBC spokesperson said in a statement that the company is "disappointed by the News Guild's continued attempts to misrepresent the facts while we work in good faith with them to reach an agreement." I'm told that NBC News has developed contingency plans to continue operations during the walkout. WaPo's Jeremy Barr has more here.

IN THE INDUSTRY

Hundreds of Hollywood writers, including Adam McKay and Tina Fey, are calling on MSNBC to negotiate a "fair contract" with WGA East. (Deadline)
NBCU unveiled various advertiser initiatives at its third annual developers conference. (Deadline)
A NewsNation reporter was arrested during a news conference held by the Ohio governor. (NewsNation)
The NYT and National Center on Disability and Journalism announced that for the third year they'll partner for a fellowship assisting journalists who cover disability issues. (NYT)
Barstool Sports CEO Erika Ayers talks about the company's business model and strategy: "What I really believe in is the infusion of comedy and entertainment in a broadcast experience of live sports. That's going to be the future. And I really see us at the forefront of that." (Variety)

MEDIA MOVES

POLITICO named Chris Cadelago as its California bureau chief as the outlet plots a westward expansion. (POLITICO)
The WaPo tapped Justin Bank as managing editor of audience and visual journalism. (WaPo)
The Financial Times appointed Madhumita Murgia as its first AI editor. (Press Gazette)
Epicenter-NYC hired Carolina Valencia as director of partnerships and communications. (Epicenter-NYC)
Variety promoted Susanne Ault to VP of event programming. (Variety)
THR named Jason Rovou VP of production/development, video. (THR)

THE INFO WARS

CNN Photo Illustration/Yuri Gripas/Reuters

O'Keefe On His Way Out?: Something is afoot at the right-wing media-activist group Project Veritas. On Wednesday, I got wind that the organization's board of directors was meeting this week and discussing consequential matters. A spokesperson for Project Veritas declined to comment on specifically what the board has discussed. When I asked about James O'Keefe's status at Project Veritas, the spokesperson declined to say. O'Keefe did not respond to text messages. When I reached him by phone, he refused to speak after I informed him who was calling. But NY Mag's Andrew Rice reported Wednesday that O'Keefe is on paid leave and that the board will discuss his potential removal from the company during a meeting Friday.

In the meantime, Dan Strack, Project Veritas' executive director, said in a statement that the board and management are "constantly evaluating what the best path forward is for the organization." Strack added, "The Board and Management are continuing this internal evaluation to assure our long term success. Project Veritas will never stop and we will never let our supporters down.  There are 65+ employees at Project Veritas dedicated to continuing the mission to expose corruption, dishonesty, waste, fraud, and other misconduct in both public and private institutions.   To our supporters: We hear you, we care about you, and we will never give up."

IN THE BATTLEFIELD

Still no comment from Spotify after Joe Rogan was condemned for pushing an anti-semitic trope on a recent episode of his show.
Charlie Kirk's right-wing empire is losing a major asset: Students for Trump. Isaac Stanley-Becker reports the story via sources and documents. (WaPo)
Fox News is giving Greg Gutfeld a Super Bowl ad, dubbing him "the new king of late night." (THR)
Speaking of the Super Bowl: Bret Baier said during SOTU coverage that the right-wing network had not yet received an answer on whether Biden will participate in the pre-Super Bowl interview. Fox is airing the game so by tradition it would normally be granted an interview with the president.
Matt Gertz writes about how Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders' GOP rebuttal to the SOTU address "was indistinguishable from a Fox News monologue." (MMFA)

THE VALLEY

CNN Photo Illustration/Tolga Akmen/AFP/Getty Images

Google's AI Gambit: Wall Street is not very impressed by Google's AI bot Bard. Shares in its parent company, Alphabet, fell nearly 8% Wednesday after Google held an event showcasing the product. It didn't go as well as executives probably hoped, with the bot during the demonstration delivering an incorrect answer to a question, highlighting how fraught with potential bugs the nascent technology is. "We'll continue to use feedback from internal and external testing to make sure it meets the high bar, our high bar for quality, safety, and groundedness, before we launch more broadly," SVP Prabhakar Raghavan said. The event from Google came one day after Microsoft held its own AI event with ChatGPT creator OpenAI. CNN's Catherine Thorbecke has details from the event here.

TOO MANY TABS

Tom Warren spent a few hours with the new AI-charged Bing and concluded that "the technology already feels like a big upgrade to ChatGPT." (The Verge)
Twitter experienced significant technical issues Wednesday evening. "Sorry for the trouble," the company acknowledged in a tweet. "We're aware and working to get this fixed." (Twitter)
Access to Twitter has been restricted in Turkey after the deadly earthquake. (CNN)
Research from the Tow Center for Digital Journalism has found that journalists remain on Twitter but are tweeting slightly less. (CJR)
If you're one of the few Twitter Blue subscribers, you can now post 4,000-character tweets on the site. (The Verge)
TikTok's complex algorithm might pose a challenge for potential U.S. oversight, Ryan Tracy and Georgia Wells report. (WSJ)
TikTok has launched new targeting features for one of its advertising tools aimed at creators. (TechCrunch)

CURTAIN CALL

CNN Photo Illustration/Mario Tama/Getty Images

Shutting Down Sharing: Netflix will expand its paid password sharing program to a handful of additional countries, including Canada, the streamer announced Wednesday. Users who want to partake are given the option to "buy an extra member." Netflix added that those who do not comply with the new policies will be blocked from streaming. "A Netflix account is intended for one household and members can choose from a range of plans with different features," the company said. Variety's Todd Spangler has more here.

OFF STAGE

Attention Hugh Laurie fans: The actor has been added to the cast of "Tehran," which Apple TV+ has renewed for a third season. (Variety)
Colman Domingo is set to star in Netflix's conspiracy thriller "The Madness." (TV Line)
"The Ark" has become Syfy's most-watched premiere in two years. (The Wrap)
Brian Lowry writes that the exits of James Corden and Trevor Noah signal "the demise of 'later-night' TV." (CNN)
Adam Vary talks to Elizabeth Banks for Variety's cover story. (Variety)
And James Hibberd chats with Harrison Ford for THR's cover story. (THR)

Thank you for reading! This newsletter was edited by Jon Passantino. Have feedback? Send us an email here. We will see you back in your inbox this time tomorrow.